~Following Lauren~
Lauren's eyes flutter open, the pounding ache behind her eyes making this take more effort then necessary. She registers the dark room she's in, the clothes messily thrown about, the bobby pins littering the floor, and the myriad of neatly stacked books against the far wall.
…
'Yep, this is my room' Lauren sighs, a little relieved at not being kidnapped. She pulls herself off of the messy bed and hobbles to her feet, doing her best to ignore the stabbing pain emanating from her head.
The witch makes her way through the dark room, flinching slightly everytime she steps on a rogue bobby pin. Lauren silently cheers to herself when she grabs hold of the doorknob. She exits her room only to immediately close her eyes, a bright light shining from the main living area semi blinding her.
"Oh my god, Lauren! You're up" Matthew screeches from his place on the couch, hanging off of the edge like a bored child. Lauren stares at him, confused as to why he's in her room. As she opens her mouth to question him, she feels herself get dragged over to the coffee table chairs.
"Matt, can you be a good boy and give us a sec to talk privately, thank you!" Axel states, setting Lauren down on one of the coffee table chairs and sitting on the opposite end. Matthew splutters, flushing in embarrassment.
"You know what, I'll just do it myself" Axel says resolutely.
"Wait, no, that takes forever to clean please do-" Lauren's please go unheard as Axel clenches his hands into fists and pulls his arms up slightly. The temperature drops drastically as small crystalline shards of ice form from the ground piling on top of one another, building itself all the way to the ceiling, forming a thick ice curtain around the two red heads.
"There, much better" Axel says, turning his now unnaturally blue eyes to his younger cousin. Lauren's shivering tells a different story, the witch giving him the stink eye.
"What was so important that you had to mutilate my room?" Lauren squeaks out, her voice still shivering. He has the audacity to shrug as he scoots his chair closer to Lauren's.
"Three things. One, you text me asking me to come over and fix the crystal ball I made for you years ago. Two, you also said you needed, not wanted, needed my help with a kid you're mentoring. And three, I'm here to now help you with whatever happened back there". The elemental explains to Lauren, placing his chin on his wrist as he speaks.
Lauren hums, taking a second to consider. She then sighs and flicks her wrist, grey tendrils of energy snaking out from them and swirling into a foggy vortex. Lauren closes her faintly glowing eyes and her brow creases in concentration.
After a few more seconds, the pile of shards from her once crystal ball fall from the vortex of grey energy and onto the slowly frosting coffee table.
"Wow, you're actually getting good at that stuff" Axel says with only a hint of sarcasm. "So this is what we're starting with, I guess it is the easiest to fix" The older cousin snarks. He moves his hands and a frosty breeze runs over the shards, lifting the pile off of the table.
Axel's pupils vanish, swallowed by the pale blue glow. The shards begin to piece together, matching each crack together. He tenses his hands and icicles begin to form in between the broken pieces, acting as a replacement to the missing shards.
Axel lets out a visible breath, the frosty air moves and wraps around the now fixed ball, creating an extra layer of crystalline ice. Lauren's shivers get progressively more and more violent, the temperature steadily dropping with every passing second.
Axel lets out one final sigh, the frost from this breath creating a separate holder for the crystal ball. He relaxes his hands and his pupils reform, the temperature in the room halting it's decent as he does so.
The newly formed ball floats down to the holder, placing itself perfectly in the grapples. Lauren's shivering slows a bit as she hugs a cushion to her chest.
"Now that that's done, time to work on your mental illness" Axel says, sounding way too amused for Laurens liking.
"If you don't stop now, the next thing we'll have to worry about is a physical illness" Lauren's sarcasm bleeds through her tone despite the shivering. Axel rolls his eyes but concedes anyway, lowering his hands to his lap and his eyes returning to their natural shade of dark blue.
Lauren sighs in relief as the temperature rises and the walls around them crumble to snow.
"We're done now, thank you for being so good and patient" Axel praises the shivering Matthew on the other side of the room. He's holding a very small silver flame to his chest, frost hanging in his hair.
"Juno wasn't kidding when she said elemental spells are hard for us to cast, I barely was able to make this" Matthew stumbles out, gesturing to the small silver flame in his palm.
"Yea well, the downside of being in the temperature category. I can't just make things happen outta nowhere" Axel explains, flicking his hand for emphasis towards the snow, proving his point when it doesn't move an inch.
Lauren shakes her head in annoyance, getting up from her chair as she does so. "I'll handle that" she says, drawing out her foggy grey energy to create another portal and move it below the piles of snow.
Lauren then turns to talk but is interrupted by Matthew.
"Wait, your name's Axel? You said it was Alex?" Matthew asks Axel, looking like he just got handed an algebraic equation. Lauren snorts and Axel chokes.
"Of course he told you that, he's been embarrassed of that name forever. You see, his parents are huge figure skating fans and when they found out their son is an ice elemental, they went crazy. They named him Axel after the jump in skating but he found it so embarrassing that he tells people they just misspelt Alex." Lauren explains through her laughter, Matthew joining in on her hysterics.
"Can we please move the subject? Like why don't we get on with Lauren's little protege?" Axel says, trying to drive the attention away from himself. Lauren and Matthew calm down real quick at the mention of Elora.
"It's too late now, obviously. But I was thinking we could get her during my free period tomorrow to catch up on all she missed after our first lesson was cut so short" Lauren explains in a measured tone, her eyes as cold as the room once was.
Axel nods in agreement, "You always were the planner" he says, not entirely mocking this time.
Lauren turns to Matthew as she remembers something.
"Isn't your family back after being gone for a couple months, you don't even have a permanent room here. In fact you should've gone home hours ago" Lauren says, raising an eyebrow at the dark haired boy.
His eyes widen and his mouth falls open. Matthew stands there, gaping like a fish. He runs off without another word.
"Come back tomorrow, we'll find Elora then" Lauren says while ushering Axel out of the door. She places the door back into place, using her grey energy to pull it from the floor and shove Axel out.
Lauren head back to her room and crashes onto the covers. She doesn't get out even a full groan when she loses consciousness.